A 25-year-old fruit seller nearly fought off his assailants before being shot to death early Saturday morning when a gang of teenagers stole his $300 motorbike.
Heng Watana, penal police chief for Tuol Kok district, said the vendor, Pen Samon, was killed on Monireth Boulevard at about 5 am.
He said police are investigating and interviewing other vendors who saw the attack, but progress is slow.
Witnesses “only know they are a teenage gang, because [the place where it happened] is dark,” he said.
Witnesses told police that Pen Samon was riding his motorbike when he was chased by two youths on another motorbike, who drew a gun and pointed it at him.
When he refused to stop, the robbers forced his motorbike off the road. Pen Samon began fighting with the two robbers. Police said he managed to get the gun away from them and kicked it out of reach.
But before he could flee the scene, two more youths approached on a second motorbike and shot him in the back, said Koy Chumnor, deputy penal police chief for the district.
One of the youths jumped on Pen Samon’s motorbike and the gang fled, police said. “We chased them to Russey Keo district,” said Suon Chenngly, municipal police chief, where the youths abandoned Pen Samon’s motorbike and fled on foot into a village.
“We could not arrest the offenders,” he said, although the motorcycle was recovered and returned to Pen Samon’s family.
